Cuatro estaciones en La Habana

This is an outstanding police drama. The characters are complex and multifaceted. Jorge Perugorría's performance is masterful as Mario Conde, a Cuban Harry Bosch-like police investigator, facing his own demons as well as those within the system in which he must work.

But beyond the story and characters, the images of Havana and its people are mesmerizing. You could watch this series of 2-hour dramas just for what seem like paintings on film. At points I paused the film just to look at the color palette of Havana. Simply stunning.

First, I have to say that I am a Cuban, living here in Havana. Several of the scenes regarding the murder of the young teacher were shot a few blocks away from my parent's home. If you really wanna understand completely the plot(s) you have to read the books by Leonardo Padura. Better still if you can read those directly in Spanish. I live in a very rough neighborhood, accurately depicted in the series. The characters are quite realistic; they act, talk, think just as described. Cuban police is very much alike the police forces in the series. (Even when the headquarters is not an actual police station, but a beachside resort, ahahaahaha) I've read an user complaining about weak police drama; I have to disagree. First, murder in Cuba, even in Havana, is not a very common deed. Homicides occur, but usually with close to none planning, as a result of a quarry, over women, or crime- related account settings. This user also says that crooks usually confess without needing to; but then you have to understand the way we Cubans think about crime and punishment. Usually when somebody does something very wrong, the bet is on not being caught, on remaining clear of the police. But once caught, almost everybody thinks that the game is over (and it usually is). Cuban police does not use torture, in the Abu-Graib way, but they have a lot of very capable officials pushing on every button of the suspect's mind to obtain a confession. So, the series is also realistic in the relation between crooks and police. Police forces are depicted the way they are: a non monolithic organization, where you are going to find good, not so good, and frankly bad, persons, with their real lives, conflicts, mistakes, struggling to do the good the best way they can find. Again, my advise, read the books by Padura

When I watch this series I get nostalgic. The language is Cuban to perfection, the mixed feelings hit me deep in my soul and everything I can think of is my Cuban coffee and the uniqueness of our culture. Yes I am in love with this show. The actors are all some of my favorites. I am so happy they got to work in something that is mixed with humor, cubanism, hypocrisy and great cinematography. Its poestry!!!

In my country this was broadcast in eight episodes of a bit less than an hour each, where each season in Havana, which equals 1 murder mystery, was split into 2 episodes. The good part: if you (like me) are a fan of Havana's special atmosphere, with its old 50s cars, revolutionary murals, and decaying colonial-era houses, then it'll be worth your while watching the show and you'll enjoy every minute of it. We get beautiful Havana landscapes, amazing drone shots, views of streets and neighborhoods both poor and rich, peeks inside grand houses of yesteryear, some in better condition, some in worse, old telephones, wonderful decor. The colors, the atmosphere are stunning. The people part is also great - we get to see beautiful Cubans all around (and they are very beautiful), along with some less beautiful of course, but that's life. We also get to see most of the beautiful ones having sex, and they make a great sight. Still on the positive side, themes that might once have been taboo in Communist Cuba are freely discussed, including drug use in schools, official corrpution, people escaping to the U.S., past repression of homosexuals, drag queens, parodies of the official ideology ("machismo-leninism" was a good one), etc. The impression was that nothing was off the table, even for this production which is Cuban-Spanish. Now to the weaker spot: the 4 actual police mysteries. Without giving anything away, and without being an expert in police dramas (as it's not my favorite genre), I found their resolution to be very simplistic. At first each murder looks really baffling, with many suspects and no clues, and then at some point towards the end, one of the suspects breaks down as if by magic and tells everything, where they really didn't have to. A bit disingenious, and disappointing. All in all as I said I'd recommend the series for Havana fans, just for its color. To me it was a pleasure to watch and made me want to go back and visit.

A very good adaptation from the 4 series of books by the same name,Conde is how I'd imagined him as are all the other characters. I've never been to Cuba but this does also how I imagine it,you can almost feel the heat during the night scenes. Not a long review but if you like Montalbano and detectives tv of that ilk you'll enjoy this too. A bit more X rated than Montalbano tho